Reeling In The Years: NBC To Air Classic Footage Special Sunday
By John Ourand, Staff Writer
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Ali Footage To Be Included In
NBC's "Icons From The Archives" |
NBC Sports is becoming a classic sports network, at least for one hour this weekend. The network is using newly found footage from dusty film reels and videotape canisters for a one-hour special called "Icons from the Archives," which will run at 5:00pm ET Sunday. Jimmy Roberts will host the program, which will feature historic NBC Sports footage of Hank Aaron, Joe Namath, Howard Cosell and Muhammad Ali. "This show is based on their personalities," said NBC Sports & Olympics Exec Producer David Neal. "We're hearing from them, in their words at the time, as opposed to watching classic games." The tapes and film had been sitting in a New Jersey warehouse since the mid '80s. Six months ago, Neal received lists of what was on those tapes, and he approached NBC Sports brass with the idea. They decided to give it an hour on Sunday. "We are trying to find projects that are interesting and historic in nature," Neal said, referencing NBC's Barbaro and Eddie Robinson documentaries. "We like to do this kind of storytelling." If the program draws good ratings, quality buzz and sponsorship interest, the broadcaster will roll out more episodes. So far, only this one, which has no presenting sponsor, has been produced.
BREAKDOWN OF THE SHOW: The episode opens with Aaron being interviewed before and after he broke MLB's home run record on NBC shows "The Baseball World of Joe Garagiola" and the Tom Brokaw documentary "The Long Winter of Henry Aaron." The show will include the NBC News "Special Report" from '74 that broke into a daytime soap opera when Aaron hit his 714th homer to tie Babe Ruth. The Namath segment features a '78 interview with Tony Guida that aired on the net's NFL pregame show, in which Namath talks about everything from his first contract negotiation to his "Broadway Joe" image. The next segment comes from NBC's Pete Axthelm's interview with Cosell from '85's "NBC SportsWorld Special" called "The Great Communicators." Cosell talks about interviewing Fidel Castro, when he is told to cut the interview short in order to show a speed skating race. "We were five hours detained in the airport because somebody in the truck ordered me, with the technician pulling the microphone from me, to throw it to Jim McKay and speed skating in Lake Placid," he said. "The television industry (shakes his head)." Finally, it offers the last rounds of Ali's '77 15-round fight with Earnie Shavers, which was called by Dick Enberg, Larry Merchant and Ken Norton. Neal said he included this footage in the show because it was a classic -- yet still obscure -- fight.
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